TAKA, Atsugi
厚木 たか (b. 3 March 1907 - 19 May 1998)
b. Matsue OKADA in Gunma Prefecture
- graduate of Japan Women's University
- proletarian (communist) documentary filmmaker
- participated in the Proletarian Film League of Japan (日本プロレタリア映画同盟), aka Prokino
- worked outside of the studio system
- changed her name to Atsugi TAKA in order to hide her identity from the Japanese police who wanted to silence her political opinions
- keenly interested in western Film Theory
- translated Paul Rotha's Documentary Film (1952) into Japanese
Secondary Sources:
- Luftus, Ronald. Depicting Women: The Memoirs and Documentary Films of Atsugi Taka. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, Issue 7, March 2002.
- Mizoguchi, Akiko. The “Japanese Women Filmmakers” Conference". Documentary Box (U of Colorado, 2000).
- Nornes, Mark Abe. Pôru Rûta/Paul Rotha and the politics of translation. 1 July 1999.
- Taylor-Jones, Kate E. Rising Sun, Divided Land: Japanese and South Korean Filmmakers. London: Wallflower Press, 2013.
